In the Kitchen

Today I made breakfast. All by myself! On the stove!

(Yes, this is the first time I have used my stove since I moved in to my apartment. It's been a busy year. And a half.)

See?

Also. Just to prove that I do bake on occasion, here are some belated pictures of my holiday baking adventures:

Not bad, right? I'm not such a terrible baker. The problem is that I am lacking when it comes to patience. I do not like taking the time to go shopping for new meals; I do not like having to think about what I should bake; I do not like to wait around while the oven is pre-heating; and I do not like spending the time to prepare my own meals (at least for one person, it seems like an awful lot of effort). Oh, and I especially do not like cleaning up. 

However. I do like the feeling of accomplishment when you finish baking, and I do like having the flexibility to make so many different things that do no include cereal, Lean Pockets, or microwaved pasta. Plus I have to get prepared for my future husband + kids, right? So I'm working on the patience part. It's probably a good quality to have.

The Struggles of a California Girl in the Boston Winter

Yesterday I had to go to a doctor's appointment. I left my apartment 10 minutes early to scrape snow off my car in light of the recent storm. Hadn't surveyed the damage yet. Found this waiting for me:

This picture doesn't really do it justice. That was at least two feet of snow forming a wall around my car. Plus covering the top. As a result, I had to take a cab to my doctor's appointment. Massachusetts: 1. California: 0.

After the doctor, I walked to Target. I decided I was supposed to buy a shovel if I wanted to drive anywhere. Either that or wait until spring. It was a very cold walk. Only to discover that Target doesn't sell shovels. Massachusetts: 2. California: 0.

Walked to Home Depot. I did not pretend to be an independent woman this time. (Desperate times call for desperate measures.) One of the boys working there directed me to the shovels. I swear to you that I thought a shovel looked like this:

Well, evidently it does not. Attention Californians. A snow shovel looks more like this:

At first it took me awhile to adjust to this newfound image of a shovel.  I thought it was a fancy dust pan with a handle. Guess not. Massachusetts: 3. California: 0. The home depot man assured me that it was a shovel. So I purchased it, and walked to a bus stop, where I caught a ride home with my new shovel.

Once home, my shovel and I went to work. For at least an hour, maybe closer to two.  During which time I decided there needs to be a class for Californians on how to shovel your car out of the snow.  How would I know? (Note to self: wear gloves next time.)  Apparently everybody else in Massachusetts was out shoveling snow five minutes after the storm ended.  Most of the other cars in the parking lot had already been unburied.  Clearly I did not get the memo.

I nearly gave up about four times and decided to come back later. (Yeah right.) But something inspired me to finish.  Maybe it was the loss of all feeling in my hands, and thus the inability to feel the onset of frostbite? Well it worked. After all that effort, I finally freed my car from its snowy prison. We did a few victory laps around the parking lot to celebrate.  Probably one of my proudest moments ever. Massachusetts: 3. California... win.

Snow Day

The nice thing about big storms is that they are a perfect excuse to spend the day at home working from your couch in your pajamas. Which is where you can find me today. Overlooking this scene, and feeling a little bit like I'm living in the North Pole.

On an unrelated note, last night I had a dream that I was back together with my high school boyfriend. We were swimming through a giant pool.  Or maybe it was a river?  Either way, it was strange, because I am pretty sure there are no high school boys or swimming pools in my life (or on my mind) right now.  I don't know what that means.

I might know what I want to do next year though. It's still early... but it's always good to brainstorm, right? Unfortunately I've never been any good at making decisions. But I think there are some decisions that may help you come a little bit closer to being who and what you are supposed to be. If I can figure those ones out, then I think life might begin to fall into place.

Calm Before the Storm

Starting at approximately 7 am, it is supposed to begin snowing. 

It's not supposed to stop until Tuesday.

 

This kind of puts a damper on my weekend plans.

At least it's not going to be 7 degrees, like it is right now.  It's nights like these that I feel very lucky to have a warm bed.  Even if I won't be seeing much of it tonight.

How Embarassing

I'm pretty sure I have had a piece of lettuce stuck in my teeth for about half of the day.  Gross. Why did nobody tell me this??

In addition, this afternoon I accidentally kicked the phone jack in the floor, thereby disconnecting the phone during a rather important conference call. 

Three times. 

Oops. 

Needless to say, the third time I got yelled at.

On the bright side, I only spilled once. (I was going to say "on the bright side, I didn't spill anything today. But when I stopped and thought about it, I remembered that I had knocked over my cup during a meeting in a senior manager's office. At least it was just water.)

I'm thinking that coordination is not my forte.

A New Year

Now that I'm back home in Boston, I think I have finally decided to accept that it is 2011.

I was expecting a sadder homecoming. But I got a nice "welcome back" message that I thought was a kind gesture.  Also, I nearly had a heart attack when the flight attendants announced, "the current temperature in Boston is 50 degrees with partially cloudy skies." 50... that's about 40 degrees warmer than I was expecting.  Plus a Bachelor season premier viewing party is in order.  So thank you, Boston, for bringing me back on a good note. 

Since my new year has finally arrived, I've been thinking about making a new years resolution. However, I don't like the word 'resolution.' Mostly because it makes me think of some kind of rigid statute that will inevitably be broken. (Sometimes I tend to do a bad job of following the rules.)  Nor do I like the idea of declaring a formal new years resolution. (Same problem.) 

Anyway.

Does it ever seem like the person you know you are on the inside is sometimes not the same person that others think you are?  In my case, the answer is, yes.  It seems all too easy to become distracted from your true intentions, or for your words to get lost in translation, or to just do a crummy job of behaving in a way that reflects who you are and what you're about.

So, in light of 2011, I think my 'goal' will be to do a better job of being the same person from inside out.

Here's to a year ahead filled with new days, new adventures, new people... and to finally leaving 2010 behind.